An excellent article about the recent INstagram outrage and comments that "you are the product." This is a great read and has excellent points refuting this over-used statement about the current business models on the Net. As for me, I'm scrutinizing the services I use and have been trying out app.net - I don't like what Twitter has done by closing down their api and think app.net has potential as a business model.

From the post:

"We can and should support the companies we love with our money. Companies can and should have balanced streams of income so that they’re not solely dependent on just one. We all should consider the business models of the companies we trust with our data.

But we should not assume that, just because we pay a company they’ll treat us better, or that if we’re not paying that the company is allowed to treat us like shit. Reality is just more complicated than that. What matters is how companies demonstrate their respect for their customers. We should hold their feet to the fire when they demonstrate a lack of respect.

And we should all stop saying, “if you’re not paying for the product, you are the product,” because it doesn’t really mean anything, it excuses the behavior of bad companies, and it makes you sound kind of like a stoner looking at their hand for the first time."

Top 10 tools for business brainstorming according to the nextweb include producteev, Google Docs, Skype, Basecamp, Facebook member pages, Teambox, Google Docs, Join.me, Zoho, Asana and Yammer. I think one of the most useful tools missing from this list is Trello. Trello is a fantastic tool that allows for collaboration between teams. This is an example of why students need to learn to collaborate now - this is something they'll be doing the rest of their lives.

Fastest growing tech companies as noted by Forbes.Topping the list is LinkedIn and second is Apple.It is shocking that Apple is still growing quickly because this list is calculated on percentages and their amount of revenue is huge compared to Linkedin and the others. Qlik, Athenahealth, Equinix, Ebix and others are included. Of note is Shutterfly. The article notes that Shutterfly is currently agreeing to buy the Kodak Gallery from the Eastman Kodak bankruptcy proceedings.

This is a pretty cool feature if you work on specific websites for people. It tracks your time on each task. This would also be good to use with students for them to track and understand ACTUALLy how much time they are spending on task and how much off task!